Neil’s personal decades: 10 — 1865

The invention of the tintype in 1854 brought the reality of photography closer to the mass population. A Tintype consisted of a thin iron ( not actually tin ) plate coated with a wet collodion emulsion. Once developed the tintype exhibited crisp detail on a varied gray background. The average tintype was about 2.5 x 3.5″ however many other sizes were produced, including miniature tintypes the size of postage stamps. Initially presented in ornate cases with pressed metal boarders similar to that of the Daguerreotype, most tintypes were housed in decorative card sleeves, specially designed albums or often left loose. While certainly more robust than a Daguerreotype, the tintypes emulsion was sensitive and often scratched due to careless handling….

It is a portrait of Thomas Daniel Sweeney Whitfield, my grandfather, who was born in Picton in 1866.

His father, William Joseph John Whitfield, had been born in Sydney in 1836, marrying Elizabeth Ratcliffe in 1861.

Following the completion of the first railway from Sydney to Parramatta Junction in 1855, proposals for the first railways to the rest of NSW were driven by postural communities interests seeking improved transport for their produce from inland centres such as Goulburn, Bathurst, Singleton and Muswellbrook. When John Whitton arrived in Sydney in 1856 to take up his position as Engineer-in-Chief of the NSW Railways, “he understood his job was to plan the extensions which would take the infant railway into the interior of Australia. At that time only the railway from Sydney to Liverpool was open, just twenty-one miles (34km) in length. Its extension to Campbelltown and beyond to the banks of the Nepean River at Menangle, a total of about seventeen miles (27km), had been surveyed” (Lee, 2000, p98). This was one of the first sections of line completed by Whitton by 1862…

When John Whitton planned the railway extension from Campbelltown to Picton, he was under pressure from government to keep costs low by using as much local material as possible, and originally proposed a timber bridge for crossing the Nepean River at Menangle. However following a large flood in 1860, Whitton designed a high level wrought iron large span bridge to get extra clearance from the waterway. Flanked by long timber approach viaducts, the bridge was a total of 582 m (1,909 feet). It was a massive structure for its time, comprising 5,909 cubic yards of masonry, 1,089 cubic yards of brickwork and 936 tons of wrought iron for a total cost of 94,562 pounds. The completion of the bridge in 1863 was an internationally recognised engineering achievement (Lee, 2000).

The single line from North Menangle to Picton opened on 1 July 1863 with Picton Station opening on the same date. The contract for the construction of the station buildings was awarded to M Jamieson & Eaton. The design of the Georgian style station building at Picton is attributed to Whitton and was completed for the opening of the single line in 1863. Other notable early stations attributed to Whitton include Mittagong, Moss Vale, Scone, Muswellbrook, Penrith (No.3 platform), Bowenfels and Mount Victoria. These early buildings borrow heavily from Whitton’s design experience in England and increasingly move from Georgian to Victorian architectural styles and represent Whitton’s obstinate faith in British railway standards and workmanship which continued throughout his career (Lee, 2000).

A goods shed and engine shed were also constructed at Picton in 1863. Picton remained the terminus of the line until the line was extended to Mittagong in 1867…

Picton Station 1863

You can read about the difficulties attending that Mittagong extension here.

And am I right in thinking that the patriarch, Henry Hunter, was an engine driver? Certainly seeing Goulburn mentioned in that family tree brought back stories Grandma Ada told me about him and Goulburn, and his being crippled with arthritis partly as a result of time spent in the cab of steam locomotives.

And I should also mention that my great-grandfather John Hampton Christison and my great-grandmother Sophia Jane Christison nee Lillie had both been born in 1858: in his case in Scotland, in hers in Australia. On GenForum:

George Lillie (Born 1834 in Aberdeen to Thomas and Martha Mathers) married Mary Collier in 1836. They went to Sydney, Australia as assisted immigrants and had the following children: Mary, George G., Thomas C., John K., Frederick W. and Sophia J.

*Correction

Kind of true, given I haven’t mentioned it yet in this series, but the Wests (as in Caroline Philadelphia West, wife of William Whitfield) and the Ratcliffes (as in the wife of William Joseph John Whitfield) were of English background, just for starters.

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